Image source: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/09/14/standing-rock-protest-camp-becomes-movement
by Jenni Monet, posted Nov 09, 2016
The Sioux tribe is facing a pro-oil president-elect with
personal investments riding on the completion of the Dakota Access pipeline.
What a Trump victory may spell for the continued battle over the Dakota
Access pipeline—and for indigenous rights, in general—is alarming.
For starters, President-elect Trump would stand to
personally profit from the project. His campaign energy adviser, Harold Hamm,
would also see gains. Hamm is the CEO of Continental Resources, which has plans
to flow its supply of Bakken fracked crude through the pipeline. With Trump’s
recent victory, Hamm is also on the short list of becoming U.S. energy
secretary.
As Politico reports, Trump is also seriously considering
74-year-old Forrest Lucas, of oil products company Lucas Oil, as a top
contender for interior secretary, along with “Drill, Baby, Drill” Sarah Palin.
This political changeover has come at a critical time in the
struggle at Standing Rock.
Trump vs the National Historic Preservation Act
(7 months ago):
“Several years
ago, one of my coworkers had the dubious honor of performing an archaeological
survey on some of Trump’s land...One day, while my coworker was leaving the
field, a limo pulled up and a window rolled down. A hand from inside the vehicle waved him
over. There was the Donald himself,
wanting to know the progress of the excavation.
“Find anything?” he asked.
“Oh! Yes-” Trump’s
question is one you only want to ask an archaeologist if you have time to kill.
We love to talk about the stuff we find, and my coworker made the mistake of
thinking Trump actually cared because a few minutes later (he stated):
“Unfind it.”
No matter how many grumpy landowners and construction
managers we deal with, a statement like this always comes as something of a
shock, and in my coworker’s telling of the story, it took a moment to
process. “What?”
“I said, unfind it.”
That was about the moment where he realized what exactly it
was that Trump wanted him to do. Not
gonna lie, going through an attempted strong-arming from the man himself would
be a little surreal, and my friend handled it better than I would have:
“Oh! Sir, we will ensure you are in
compliance with all relevant laws and statutes.”
“That’s not what I said-”
“We’re here to ensure you are in compliance with all
relevant laws and statutes, and that’s what we’ll do.”
At this point, Trump must have told his driver to drive off
in a huff, because the window rolled up and the limo pulled away...”
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